while Article I spells out what kind of laws Congress can make, Article II doesn't do this for the president

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it gives the president different roles and powers

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enforce the laws

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like a sheriff

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with the help of

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executive officers

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members of cabinet

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federal prosecutors

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FBI

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most of the government's workers

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president can control people under his command generally as he wants

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hire and fire

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tell them what to do

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for some high level positions, he can't hire without senate approval

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appoints federal judges

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conducts foreign affairs

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can make treaties with senate approval

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can enter into agreements on his own

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commander and chief of armed forces

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can't declare war

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this power is reserved to congress

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but if there is a war, he conducts it

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looking at this list of powers, the president is in a way secondary to congress

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Article II comes after Article I

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congress makes laws, the president enforces them

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congress declares a war, the president commands it

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but power has shifted away from congress and towards the president

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the basic reason is that congress has its own separation of powers

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two houses, 100 senators, hundreds of representatives

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rules like the filibuster which make it hard for even a majority to get much done

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the power of the executive branch, in contrast, is concentrated in one person

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can act quickly and decisively

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particularly in times of war

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during the Civil War, Lincoln did things that might not have been constitutional

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seized ships bound for Confederate ports

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Supreme Court eventually said that was not a violation of the Constitution

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suspended the writ of habeas corpus during Civil War

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this meant he could arrest people on his own and not have to explain why to a court

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tried to prosecute civilians in military commissions rather than Federal courts

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the Supreme Court ruled he couldn't do this

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announced he was freeing the slaves in Confederate States

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the Emancipation Proclamation is an unusual expansion of presidential power

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quite possibly not consistent with the Constitution

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in defense of these actions, Lincoln made the argument, "it was necessary"

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Franklin Roosevelt

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to fight Great Depression, he expanded the Federal government with The New Deal

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with the support of congress but over the opposition of the Supreme Court

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Court finally backed down

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to fight WWII

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prosecuted Nazi saboteurs in a military commission

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told Supreme Court he would defy an order to send them to Federal Court instead

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evacuated Japanese-Americans from Pacific Coast and detained them in camps

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elected four times

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Harry S Truman

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gets FDR presidency handed to him

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sends troops into Korea without congressional authorization

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argument was that it was a "United Nations police action" not an American war

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in order to provide steel to those troops, he seized steel mills to prevent strikes

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steel companies sued him, creating the Youngstown case

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we want the president to be able to save the nation when there is a crisis, but not be able to claim there is a crisis when none exists, or exaggerate one and use it as an excuse to take more power

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Justice Robert Jackson, three categories of presidential power

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1. congress approves of his actions

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his authority is at its maximum

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2. congress says nothing about this actions

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president can only rely on his own independent powers, or Congress and president can have concurrent authority

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3. congress disapproves of his actions

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president's power is at its lowest ebb

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in the Youngstown case, congress was opposed, court ordered him to hand the mills back, and he obeyed

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the party system complicates this

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since a Congress of the same part as the president is likely to support him whether or not his actions are Constitutional or not

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the Supreme Court has never ruled that the president is allowed to break the law in order to save the nation

People:

Robert Jackson (1892-1954)

United States Solicitor General (1938-1940), United States Attorney General (1940–1941) and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Jackson's concurring opinion in 1952's Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, forbidding President Harry Truman's seizure of steel mills during the Korean War to avert a strike, where Jackson formulated a three-tier test for evaluating claims of presidential power, remains one of the most widely cited opinions in Supreme Court history

chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials

"any lawyer worth his salt will tell the suspect in no uncertain terms to make no statement to the police under any circumstances"